Copper River Seafoods officials have made a decision to continue
participating in sustainable seafood certification programs offered by Global Trust
via the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, and another from the Marine Stewardship
Council.
“The choice of programs now offers professional seafood buyers
an option to meet and exceed their sustainability plans,” Copper River Seafoods
officials said in an announcement on Oct. 1 in Anchorage. “CRS has and will continue
to participate in both programs.”
Traditionally processors of Alaska seafood had relied on the
Marine Stewardship Council’s third party sustainable seafood certification program
to assure buyers that a variety of Alaska seafood was harvested from sustainable
fisheries.
Still, there has been growing concern from several processors
over the past few years that once certified by MSC the Alaska brand did not stand
out on its own, but rather presented as another MSC approved seafood. There was
a lot of grumbling at one particular meeting of processors on the board of the Alaska
Seafood Marketing Institute, who noted that the Alaska Constitution already mandated
that all of the state’s fisheries be well managed and sustainable. They wanted an
alternative to MSC, and got it, thanks to an agreement struck between ASMI and Ireland-based
Global Trust.
On April 16, Alaska king crab and snow crab fisheries became
the latest Alaska commercial fisheries to complete certification by a Global Trust
certification committee.
ASMI is currently seeking requests for proposals from eligible
applicants from reputable qualified bidders to perform fisheries certification assessments
of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska flatfish fisheries and Aleutian Islands gold
king crab fisheries. The deadline for proposals is Oct. 31. Details on how to submit
proposals are at www.alaskaseafood.org